BARCELONA // Barcelona’s imposing central post office boasts brass letter boxes that offer three choices: national, international or Madrid. Until the high-speed AVE train opened between Spain’s two biggest cities in 2008, the connecting air route was the busiest on the planet.
Interaction between the pair comes in many forms and there is a strong, social, political, economic and cultural rivalry, most famously in football between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Atletico Madrid may have stunned the competition this season, but the clasico is the biggest, most glamorous affair in world football. Taking on Real Madrid in Valencia’s towering Mestalla in the Copa del Rey final on Wednesday night is also likely to be the only opportunity for Barcelona to win a trophy this season.
Their fans are fuming, but almost 70,000 Barca fans applied for the club’s 19,000 tickets and the figures were similar in Madrid.
That so many fans from each club will be watching makes it a clasico with a difference – there are just a few hundred travelling fans when the giants meet in league matches. The fans will be kept apart in Spain’s third biggest city and will not see each other until they enter the stadium.
Madrid have reached the final without conceding a goal in 10 games. They also did what no other team has achieved to their neighbours Atletico, destroying them 5-0 over two semi-final encounters.
With justification, Atletico are the team of the moment, yet Madrid could still win the treble of the league, cup and the much vaunted decima – a 10th European Cup.
Barca won both league encounters this season, most recently in an epic 4-3 victory at the Bernabeu, which ended Madrid’s 32 game unbeaten run. Before both matches, the Spanish media suggested how it was now time for the new Madrid to show why they were the country’s best team. Yet, they could not beat Barcelona.
Both teams are also missing key players. Gerard Pique, who sustained a pelvic injury against Atletico three weeks ago, is unlikely to start in the Catalans maligned defence.
Defenders Carles Puyol and Marc Bartra are injured though Puyol, who has featured in only 12 games this season, six of them in the Copa del Rey, said that he can play in what would likely be his last major appearance for the club.
It is probable that Barca’s central defenders will be Javier Mascherano and Sergio Busquets, neither of who are natural defenders.
Cristiano Ronaldo is out for Madrid. Carlo Ancelotti, Madrid’s coach, did not want to risk his best player, the matchwinner when the clubs last met in the Copa del Rey final in 2011, as next week’s Uefa Champions League first-leg against Bayern Munich is considered a more important game.
“Cristiano will always be missed, but the players aren’t saying ‘My God, what do we do without him’,” the Italian said. “They are confident and have shown they know how to win without him.”
So they should be given that they possess the world’s most expensive player in Gareth Bale.
Barca need to triumph to save their season, Madrid if they are to win the treble.
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